Tongue Twisters

Gleaned in rehearsal for Mrs. Warren's Profession with Shotgun Players in Berkeley, at the Ashby Stage. (Now playing through April 27, tickets obtainable by calling 510-841-6500, ext. 303!)

A big black bug bit a big black bear and made the big black bear bleed blood.

The ruddy widow really wants ripe watermelon and red roses when winter arrives.

She stood on the balcony inexplicably mimicking him hiccuping and amicably welcoming him in.

I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's son, and I'll be here plucking pheasants 'til the pheasant plucker comes.

What will happen to the sheet slitter's daughter, when the sheet slitter's out slitting sheets?

I should point out that these delicious tongue twisters were given to us by our dialect coach. The director wanted the play to be performed using British accents and speech patterns appropriate to the period. That dialect, known as "received pronunciation," or "RP" for short, is no longer spoken widely in Great Britain. Most people there of all classes speak in their local dialect, of which the most widely spoken is called "Estuary" for the Thames estuary region in which it is spoken (viz., London and environs). To the American ear, Estuary sounds like cockney, although strictly speaking it isn't. Think Michael Caine -- he was one of the first important British actors to insist on simply spoken English as she is spoke in the mother country, rather than the so-called "Queen's English," or RP.
Anyway, we had to learn to speak in RP for this production, and these interesting Tongue Twisters are meant to be spoken in that dialect as a way to warm up the mouth and tongue for performance.